[2] Excavation work started on the site of the mausoleum on 27 January 1862, the final plans having been approved by Victoria that day.

Victoria was accompanied by many of her children and many members of staff in attendance to the royal household for the ceremony of laying the foundation stone.

[4][2] Nikolaus Pevsner's Buildings of England series describes the mausoleum as the "finest piece of Victorian funerary architecture in Britain".

A Latin inscription in bronze above the door can be translated: That part of Prince Albert which was mortalthe mourning Widow Queen Victoria willed to be buried in this Tomb, the Year of our Lord 1862Farewell, thou most desired!

here at the last I shall rest with theeI shall rise up with thee in Christ[10][11]Antonio Salviati designed and created the elaborate mosaics in the porch of the mausoleum, at a quoted cost of £480.

[2] This dissatisfaction endangered his proposed designs for the future Albert Memorial, and he offered to rectify the work at his own expense.

[2] The interior is richly decorated in the High Renaissance style reminiscent of Raphael, whom Albert described as "the greatest artist of all time".

The couple are each depicted in recumbent effigies in marble sculpted by the Italian sculptor Carlo Marochetti.

[16] The latter and wing windows of the royal mausoleum were originally decorated with patterned glass and the armorial crests of the Saxe-Coburg family.

The stained glass was renewed under the direction of Edward VII in the early 20th century, and the cupola was repainted at the same time.

Due to the marshy nature of the land, the foundations were generally waterlogged, and the lower elements of the building were disintegrating.

[18] This was begun in June 2018, with the aims of creating a dry moat around the building and of replacing its roof, protecting it from the long-standing problem of water infiltration.

[19] In 1869, the architectural illustrator Henry William Brewer undertook a commission from Queen Victoria to complete a series of paintings of the Mausoleum.